


A set of peculiar events

by Flygirl (ThegirlwiththeCessna)



Category: The Orville (TV)
Genre: F/M, Romance, slow-burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-09-24 02:33:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20350933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThegirlwiththeCessna/pseuds/Flygirl
Summary: Jamie Kirk, whose late parents really loved Star Trek, ends up on the Orville.On earth she was a loner, a nerd girl with no friends or family. On the Orville she has the chance for all of that, and more, if she lets down her deflector shields.On the Orville neither her intellect nor her sleight weirdness are showstoppers. Can this chaotic, but lovely crew win the heart of a broken girl?





	1. A peculiar day

Yep, my life was awesome.  
Really, fantastically awesome.  
Not.  
Not. At. All. 

I was on my way to Astrophysical Science when it happened. A flash of light, a painfully high screeching sound and I was somewhere else. No warning, just “BAM!” and gone.  
My head hurt a bit from the screeching and my eyes burned from the light. It took a second before I was able to take in my surroundings. And strange surroundings these were.  
A bright, steel grey room and a bunch of people staring at me. All of them were wearing Star-Trek-like costumes and I was wondering who of my lovely classmates decided to have their fun with me again. Probably the rich kids, they had the financial power to pull a joke like that. And of course, the prank-channel on YouTube, that was featuring me often enough. They were quite imaginative when it came to their jokes and pranks.  
A full-on Star-Trek set was something new, though. And I had seen a lot of elaborate pranks. 

I was a nerd, I was smart – not ashamed to admit that albeit I never used it to show off – and I was the butt of every damn joke my classmates made. I understood why, I never drank, I never partied, I wasn’t exactly pretty, had a few kilos too much, I was weird, and I’d chosen the hard-core extra-classes. And I really loved Star Trek. Just like my parents really loved Star Trek. And that led to the neon-nerd-sign over my life. My name.  
Jamie Tiberia Kirk.  
I was a walking fan-shirt for Star Trek.  
No wonder that one day a Star-Trek influenced prank would come. I should have been expecting it.  
How they had managed this though, was a mystery to me.  
But they were pulling through with it quite nicely.  
A guy with big bulges on his hairless head – could be rich-kid Ellis underneath that klingonesque SFX-makeup – pointed a phaser at me.  
“Goddammit, I admire your dedication to making fun of me, but kidnapping me is a little too much, don’t you think, Ellis? Borderline illegal, I’d say…” I asked while getting up. I was used to their mockery. I tried to not let it face me and even more important, I tried to not let it show when it did.  
“Huh?”, made the guy in the captain’s chair an undignified noise. I didn’t recognize him. Probably some friend of Ellis or someone.  
“Alara, we need you on the bridge, asap!”, said the woman – probably the first officer given her shoulder pieces – and looked at me with a mixture of curiosity and mistrust. There were less stripes than on the guy’s.  
I didn’t know her either.  
“Okay, who are you, what are you and how the hell did you just appear on my ship, out of nowhere?” The captain-guy asked briskly.  
I pinched the bridge of my nose and let my head fall forward.  
Being on the receiving end of these pranks was getting old as of late.  
“Okay guys, this is really funny, probably will be a hit on YouTube but it’s enough now. I really need to get to my class and I’ll not sue you for using my pictures on YouTube?”  
“Uh,” made captain-guy again. He wasn’t the most talented actor on this planet it appeared.  
“We’re not your… uh Ellis…”  
“It appears, Captain, that this human woman was transported through spacetime. The scans confirm this.”  
My head snapped around to stare at a guy in an awesome robot costume. Damn, he really outdid himself this time. He had probably hoped that the dumb little nerd girl would believe she had been rescued out of her boring life by a Q or something.  
I maybe should show more of my intellect to prevent this kind of underestimation. It was tiring.  
“Ellis! This is enough! I’m leaving.”  
I headed for the door, quite convinced I was going to find a door handle there.  
I didn’t even reach the door, yet, before it slid open, revealing a woman with an alien-makeup and pointy ears.  
“Alara, bring her to Dr. Finn.” The woman with the blond hair ordered.  
I just huffed and tried to scuffle past the red-dressed woman still standing in the doorway. The automatic door. I started to wonder.  
Something was off here. Ellis was rich, but this, this was far too expensive to build or rent, even for him.  
It couldn’t be some used Star Trek set, since the bridge configuration didn’t fit any Starfleet vessel and the touchscreens really reacted to the crew’s input, I noticed that now, as I was half turned to the bridge.  
No, something was very, very, very peculiar.  
The woman had gripped my arm, when I tried to get past her and stopped to ponder the details that didn’t fit my prank-assumption. Her grip was surprisingly strong for her delicate frame, I couldn’t help but notice.  
I tried hard to yank my arm free, to no avail, however.  
“Tell Dr. Finn, I’ll come in half an hour to question our guest… She needs to make sure that she is indeed human though…”  
“What else would I be, damn it? A Vulcan? A Romulan!? Will you make this stop, Ellis, if I play along?” I yelled now, still trying to yank my arm free.  
Because, what else could it be, but the most elaborate prank ever? 

The woman pulled me away from the door, that closed behind us, before I could hear the potential answer.  
“You hurt my arm, damnit!” I snarled and she loosened her grip just a little.  
A hint of fear crept up my spine.  
What the hell was going on here?  
“What’s going on here, woman!?” I demanded to know.  
“I don’t know, you tell me!” The woman said and pulled me further along.  
The feeling, that this was a prank subsided, increasingly, with every step through these grey, brightly lit corridors.  
“My name’s Alara Kitan, by the way. Now please don’t call me “woman” again. I’m the chief of security aboard the Orville…”, said the woman walking me through seemingly endless hallways, breaking the somewhat awkward silence.  
I gulped; aboard meant I was on some kind of ship. Since this wasn’t a prank – or at least that was what my gut instinct told me – it had to be a space vessel. I had noticed the big screen on the bridge. At first, I’d thought it was a fancy TV or something.  
I stopped abruptly, the woman – Alara – turning and staring at me in curiosity.  
“We’re really in space, aren’t we? What year do we have? Where am I?”  
“I’m not authorized to answer these questions, but I’m sure Captain Mercer will…”  
She tried a smile, it ended up being an unsure grimace.  
I felt cold creeping up my spine. I was somewhere in space, probably in another time, I was being held somewhat captive by this strange alien woman. My heartrate sped up.  
Yes, this was going to be a great big fat… 

“She’s definitely human. I tested everything, unless she’s from some extremely advanced species she’s human.” That was a warm female voice I hadn’t heard before.  
“Good, when will she wake up?” That was the voice of the captain.  
“She fainted in the hallway, Alara carried her here. To prevent a panic attack, I sedated her for the exam… only lightly, though, she should wake…” Oh, great, they used some weird future drug on me. Just wonderful.  
I groaned, my head swam, and I still felt panic flowing through my body in waves. I tried to sit up, but my senses were failing me. My eye lids were heavy like lead. I felt like my body just didn’t have any more adrenaline left.  
“Easy there, darling. Lay back down. We’re not going to hurt you, everything’s fine.”  
I opened my eyes and looked in the motherly face of a dark-skinned woman in a green coat.  
“What’s your name, sweetheart?”, she asked softly. Something about her calmed me down at least a little bit.  
“I’m Jamie Kirk,” and out of custom I said: “My parents really loved Star Trek…” I didn’t know why it felt necessary to point that out. If my theory was correct and I was on a spaceship – however that was possible – these people wouldn’t find anything strange in my name. Or so I thought. Because the captain started to chuckle.  
“You don’t say…” He said and grinned. A reaction I got a lot, if it wasn’t laughter, people at least chuckled like I was an especially weird type of nerd. As if my name was my fault.  
“Good ol’ Star Trek… Well, I don’t think you’re going to tell us you were sent from the Enterprise, huh?”  
“You know Star Trek?” Somehow this show seemed to have survived until now. Whenever now was.  
I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction to react to his supposed joke.  
“Yes… a show from Earth… 300 or so years old…”, he said slowly, curiosity taking over his voice and features.  
“300…” I stopped. “300…”  
“300…” I couldn’t form another thought than that.  
I repeated the number a few more times, more to myself than to the two people around me.  
“Doc, I think I’ve broken her…”, said the captain, deadpan.  
“Oh my… no… you’re lying…” It couldn’t be. Time travel was not possible. Not unless some very peculiar quantum mechanics theories were plausible.  
And this captain got on my nerves.  
“I’m not lying Miss Kirk, you’re aboard the Orville, a Union ship… Our science officer says you’re roughly from the year 2040…?”  
“Oh God… yes, 2042 to be exact, I was born in 2022 in the council area Western Europe… Where Germany used to be till the Earth Council was founded in 2030…” I shut my mouth. I hated it when I started babbling out of nerves.  
“Dear lord… What in all of hell happened? Did you kidnap me?”  
“What…? No!” The captain seemed truly insulted by this assumption.  
So, he probably didn’t kidnap me. Why should they anyway.  
“Miss Kirk, I guess, we both have questions… but I’ll grant you the first round…”  
“Girl, if he tires you, call me… we still don’t know what happened to you… If you feel unwell, say so.” The doctor, I guessed that was what she was, turned and left the room.  
I was alone with the captain until a few heartbeats later the blond woman from the bridge entered the room through another automatic door.  
I looked at her, trying to put all my confusion away. I didn’t want to seem intimidated.  
“Hello, I’m First Officer Kelly Grayson, welcome aboard the Orville.”  
She smiled warmly at me, unlike the captain’s reserved style she seemed to try to get to me with friendliness.  
Since I still had no real clue of what was going on, it seemed best to play along.  
I could panic, too, but that wouldn’t help anyone.  
“I’m Jamie T. Kirk, thank you…”  
She didn’t seem to find my name strange at all. She shook my hand, continuing to smile.  
“Ed, Isaac told me, what the readings further show… No signs of any known form of anomaly. The space time emissions are weird around the time she appeared, otherwise everything’s normal. He thinks it could be a – until now theoretical – micro wormhole.”  
I listened up. Micro wormholes, those things were a mere theory in 2042, too. No serious scientist believed them to be plausible. It seemed that hadn’t changed in the last 300 years.  
Plus, a wormhole probably wouldn’t screech. Or at least I didn’t think it would. I hadn’t made close contact with one.  
Yet, I kept quiet, observing the situation carefully.  
“Well, Miss Kirk, as I said before, if you have questions, shoot.”  
Both officers looked at me, one carefully hiding his mistrust, the other smiling friendly.  
I asked my question, becoming calmer with every minute. There was nothing much I could do, plus I never saw the use in being hysterical.  
So here I was, 300 years in the future on a ship called Orville. Somewhere near Vynvorca 3 im Vynvorca-System.  
The FO left after I finished with the last question, about the name of the ship.  
“Doctor… I feel better now, physically at least… Could… would it be possible that I’m shown around…?” I called for the woman in green. She entered the room moments later.  
“I can’t see why not… But be careful, young lady…” The doctor gave me a sense of security, she reminded me of my late mother, who’d been a strict but loving person.  
“Captain, do you allow this?” I turned to Captain Mercer, as he had introduced himself.  
“I’ll send someone to show you your quarters first. We have to clear your status with headquarters and of course look for a way to send you back…” He stated matter-of-factly.  
“Oh, yeah, sure I get that… Will… will my quarters have windows… to the stars? I’d… I’d like to see them…” I hoped that I didn’t ask too much, the captain didn’t seem to like the thought of having someone to look after on board of his ship. At least that was the idea I got from him.  
“You’ll get one of the guest chambers. They usually don’t have windows, sorry.”  
I nodded in compliance. This captain, my grandma would have said that “Mit ihm ist nicht gut Kirschen essen.” It meant that he wasn’t an easy man to deal with.  
Kind of a shame really, he seemed nice enough at first.


	2. A historical artifact

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jamie meets Gordon.

„Miss Kirk, do come in please!” Ed Mercer said and gestured for me to enter the room.  
I entered the Captain’s office and looked around, once more taken aback by the view out of the window. I wasn’t sure I was going to get used to being right amongst the stars. They were beautiful and mesmerizing, I could get lost in them again and again.  
Before that could happen though, I forced my gaze away from the windows and looked at the captain.  
“Sir… you wanted to speak to me?”  
Mercer had sent the young alien woman in red to my quarters where I had basically been hiding the last six days, only interrupted by the visits of the good doctor. She had sensed, I guessed, that I needed some kind of guiding light and was happy to provide exactly that.  
Claire had become the closest thing resembling a friend I ever had. In this century or any other.  
The captain cleared his throat and brought my focus back to him now entirely.  
“Well, actually it’s Admiral Ozawa who wants to speak to you”, he explained and smiled at me in a way I supposedly was to find reassuring. I still felt that the Captain had a problem with me. I couldn’t pinpoint where that feeling came from or why, there was just something in his eyes that made me feel like I had done something wrong.  
“Oh…, right…” I felt my heartrate speed up now, as I was slowly stepping towards the Captain. In the last 72 hours I hadn’t heard much about what was going on the ship.  
Now, all of a sudden, an Admiral wanted to speak with me.  
I rounded the table and tried not to flinch away as the captain put his hand on my shoulder, pulling me into the range of the sensors. A move that could have been meant reassuring again, but it felt more like he was trying to get this over with as fast as possible.  
“Miss Kirk, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Captain Mercer already told me a lot about you.”  
Admiral Ozawa was an Asian-looking woman, who had a pretty stern look about her. If she’d smile surely, she would be a lot less intimidating than she was now.  
“Ad… admiral…” Here I was, stuttering like an idiot. I felt the extreme desire to facepalm myself and then sink into an abyss. If I was to ask what I wanted to ask I couldn’t come off as an incoherent, mumbling little girl.  
“No need to be insecure, young lady, I won’t bite. We have a lot to discuss.” She turned in her seat and looked at Captain Mercer, ordering him to leave so she could discuss whatever she needed to discuss with me in private. I didn’t know whether I wanted to be relieved that the stressed atmosphere left with Captain Mercer or that I was now more or less alone with an Admiral of a freaking Space Union. My life was really going crazy. 

“I want to make a few things clear right away, Miss Kirk. You can’t be sent back, you have seen to much about the future and brain wipes tend to have unwelcome consequences… Secondly, till the Orville returns to Earth in about six months you’ll have to stay aboard. I know this must come as a…”  
I was moving around on the chair I had seated myself in, like I had some bees up my butt.  
I had gotten excited after being told that I was to stay in this century, happy much more than shocked. After all, here I had the chance to become someone completely new, I could build myself whatever life I wanted. Claire and I had talked about that already. I had nothing to lose, but a whole universe to win.  
“Admiral… sorry to interrupt you… But I’d have asked for your permission to stay in this time anyways…”  
The admiral raised an immaculate eyebrow and seemed to expect further information.  
“I… I have no one and nothing back home… I don’t have anything to lose. But if you look into my records – if they’re still saved somewhere in the databanks – of the Central European University, you’ll find that I studied physics and… I read up a bit on your Union. I am confident I could attend the Academy… with your permission of course…”  
The words kind of spluttered out of my mouth and I knew I had already become beetroot red.  
“Miss Kirk, you’re certainly eager and adventurous, which I admire, honestly, although I cannot see how you would even manage the qualification exams necessary to attend Union Academy…”  
She eyed me in a way that told me what she thought of me. I wasn’t going to give up that easily though.  
“Admiral, I’ve read that it is possible for people aboard starships to go to the simulator version of all Academy courses whilst also serving as Cadet on the ship… Ma’am, if I fail the qualification exams – I know they start in precisely a month – I will never ask again and just live my life in peace and quiet on Earth, maybe as history teacher or something… however, if I qualify, I’ll be treated as every other member on this crew and… I won’t be deadweight for Captain Mercer to drag around…”  
I really had no clue where the sudden burst of boldness came from, but I noticed that there was a change in the Admirals expression. She then started to nod slowly.  
“I guess you have the right to choose your way here now… given that you can’t go back.” She said, then asked me to leave and sent Captain Mercer in.  
As I did as asked, I couldn’t help the enormous grin that spread on my face.  
I had had the idea, sure, and Claire said it was even a good idea, but I never thought I’d pull through with it. 

I decided to go to Claire right away, to tell her the good news and also because I didn’t want to sit in my room the whole day staring at the wall. I was going to live here now, I should get to know the place.  
So, I headed to sickbay. For one I’d most certainly find Claire there, plus it was the only place I knew where to find – at least from my quarters. From the Captain’s office I could only walk and guess. Or ask the computer and look like an incompetent idiot.  
The Orville wasn’t exactly big in Union-terms but to me she was a huge – and strangely beautiful – ship. She was roughly about the size of Kirk’s Enterprise, a bit narrower than the Enterprise though and I wasn’t one for orientation anyway.  
Determined not to get lost I started to march towards where I was pretty sure the sickbay was.  
After quite a while I had to admit to myself that I had no fucking clue where I was.  
It wasn’t anywhere I’d been before, I thought, but then again basically every hallway looked exactly the same.  
“Hey… uh… you’re the historical artifact, right?”  
I jumped a bit when an apparently Scottish man with red hair and a somewhat unkempt looking beard suddenly appeared next to me. His smile was friendly enough and I remembered Claire telling me not to snap at everybody just because they could potentially be mean. Yeah, she saw right through me and guessed what had transpired in my past. She was an amazing therapist.  
“Yeah… though I’d prefer being called Jamie…”  
“Oh yeah, yeah, Ed told me… I’m Gordon!” He extended his hand and smiled broadly.  
“But… can I ask ya something, lass?”  
“Sure, shoot.” I tried to at least sound more relaxed than I felt. I have always hated my anxiety when it came to meeting and talking with new people.  
It wasn’t so bad when it was entirely professional, but as soon as there wasn’t a clear structure of rank or something I got really, really anxious.  
“What are ya doing down here? Ya look slightly lost.”  
“Probably because I am… I wanted to go to Dr. Finn… and got lost…” I shuffled my feet and shrugged apologetically.  
“Well, I was right on ma way to go get John – our engineer – to hang out with me in the mess hall… if Dr. Finn doesn’t expect ya, ya can always join us. Haven’t seen ya round, ya know… guess it’s all a bit new… So, if ya want some company…”  
He tried an awkward wink and I was wondering if this was a bad attempt at flirting. I figured, even if he was trying to flirt with me, he seemed harmless enough and I had promised myself to try and make friends here. Awkwardness be damned.  
“Well, I just wanted to tell Dr. Finn something… but that can wait… if I’m really not intruding...”  
“Nah, lass… C’mon, let’s find John…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, as you might have noticed, English isn't my first language... please point out all mistakes you can find. I'd greatly appreciate it.  
Also, I'm going to change the view to narrator, since I think it'll fit the story better (plus it's easier to write... at least for me...).  
I hope you won't mind that.
> 
> And yes, I made Gordon a Scotsman because you can't travel through space without someone Scottish aboard. It's the law.


End file.
